This photolithograph from the Detroit Publishing Company documents the busy street life of New York City’s Lower East Side at the start of the 20th century. Between 1870 and 1915, New York’s population more than tripled, from 1.5 million to 5 million. In 1900, when this photo was taken, foreign-born immigrants and their children constituted a staggering 76 percent of the city’s population. Often described as the Main Street of Little Italy, Mulberry Street was dominated from the 1890s by immigrants from Italy. These immigrants jostled ...

Maria von Trapp became a household name in the United States when her story was turned into the 1959 Broadway musical The Sound of Music. She and her family previously had immigrated to the United States from their native Austria following the takeover of the country by Nazi Germany. This Declaration of Intention to become a U.S. citizen, submitted to the U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vermont, on January 21, 1944, sheds light on the real Maria von Trapp.

Willem Kieft (1597–1647) was a Dutch merchant who was
appointed by the West India Company as director-general of New Netherland in
1638. Kieft instituted a harsh policy toward the Indians of the colony, whom he
attempted to tax and drive from their land. In 1643, a contingent of soldiers
under Kieft attacked a Raritan village on Staten Island
in a dispute over pigs allegedly stolen from a Dutch farm. This led to the
bloody, two-year conflict known as Kieft’s war, which raged in parts of what is
now ...

In 1664, the Dutch colony of New Netherland ceased to exist when Governor Peter Stuyvesant was forced to surrender New Amsterdam--soon to be renamed New York--to an English fleet. Many residents of what became the British colonies of New York and New Jersey continued to speak Dutch and to worship in churches where services were conducted in Dutch. This pamphlet, published in New York in 1725, concerns a dispute within a Dutch Reformed congregation in Raritan, "in the Province of New Jersey, in North America, under the Crown of Great ...

On August 27, 1664, a fleet of four British warships under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls sailed into the harbor of New Amsterdam (present-day New York City) and demanded that Peter Stuyvesant, the director-general of the Dutch colony of New Netherland, surrender the colony to the British. The out-gunned Stuyvesant had no choice but to comply, and under English rule Nicolls became the first governor of the renamed Province of New York. This document lists the articles of capitulation by which the colony was surrendered and that established the ...

In the 1660s, colonists from the English colonies of Connecticut and Massachusetts to the east and northeast and Maryland and Virginia to the south and southwest increasingly infringed on the Dutch colony of New Netherland, which was located in parts of present-day New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut. This remonstrance, or complaint, published in Schiedam in 1663, was an appeal by the directors of the West India Company to the States-General, the ruling body of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, for increased protection against the incursions of the ...

Pieter Cornelis Plockhoy was a Dutch Mennonite and social reformer, born in the city of Zierikzee circa 1625. He moved to Amsterdam in 1648, where he became well known in the city’s intellectual circles. In 1658 he went to London where he tried unsuccessfully to gain the support of Oliver Cromwell, the antiroyalist Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, for the establishment of utopian settlements in England. Plockhoy returned to Netherlands in 1661 and in 1662 concluded a contract with the Amsterdam magistrates for the establishment of a settlement on ...

This pamphlet, published anonymously in Amsterdam in October 1662, concerns the establishment of a settlement on the South River (as the Dutch called the Delaware River) in New Netherland by the Dutch Mennonite and social reformer Pieter Cornelis Plockhoy. The pamphlet consisted of proposals sent to the magistrates of the city of Amsterdam to gain their support for the settlement, which Plockhoy intended to be for poor and needy families and based on reformist principles. The pamphlet was partly intended to reassure investors that the settlement would also be a ...

This pamphlet, published in Amsterdam in 1656, contains information about the patroonships offered by the West India Company to settlers in the Dutch colony of New Netherland, and in particular about the policies of the city of Amsterdam toward overseas colonization under the terms of the agreement between the city and the West India Company. Intended to help populate the colony, the patroonships were large grants of land made to Dutch investors who agreed to establish a colony of “fifty souls, upwards of fifteen years old.” The pamphlet was, in ...

The Lords Nineteen, the governing body of the Dutch West India Company, established the patroon system as a way to encourage the settlement of New Netherland, the Dutch colony in North America that covered parts of present-day New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware. Patroons were wealthy Dutchmen who were given extensive tracts of land, powers of local government, and some participation in the fur trade in exchange for settling colonists in New Netherland. In June 1629, the West India Company issued the Charter of Liberties and Exemptions, which declared ...

This book, published in Amsterdam in 1655, is one of the most important sources for the study of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. Adriaen van der Donck was trained as a lawyer at Leiden University. In 1641–43, he worked at the vast patroonship (estate) of Rensselaerswijck, surrounding present-day Albany, New York. He then applied for and received from the West India Company his own grant of land, a large tract located just north of Manhattan in present-day Westchester County, New York. (The city of Yonkers takes its name ...

This dramatic print shows the destruction of Pennsylvania Hall, a large building that was constructed in 1837–38 at Sixth and Haines Streets in Philadelphia as a meeting place for local abolitionist (antislavery) groups. Dedication ceremonies began on May 14, 1838, and continued over several days in a climate of growing hostility from anti-abolitionist forces in the city. On the night of May 17, 1838, an anti-abolitionist mob stormed the hall and set it on fire. Fire companies refused to fight the blaze, and the building was completely destroyed. A ...

This print is an exterior view of the rough-cast second edifice of the Bethel African American Methodist Episcopal Church at 125 South 6th Street in Philadelphia. Pedestrians and parishioners, predominantly women, stroll the sidewalk and enter the building, which is adorned with a simple stone tablet inscribed "Bethel Church." Known as "Mother Bethel," the church was founded in the 1790s by free Blacks who broke away from Saint George’s Methodist Episcopal Church, where they faced racial discrimination. The church’s first building was dedicated in July 1794. The larger ...

This print shows the Friends (Quaker) Meeting House on Cherry Street in Philadelphia. Quakers count Sunday as the first day of the week, so the reference in the title to the fourth day is to Wednesday. Members of the Hicksite congregation, including men, women, and children, are shown arriving at and leaving the church. Some of the women carry umbrellas. The caption at the bottom explains: “The Building which is about 42 feet front on Cherry Street by 100 feet deep was commenced on the 19th of the 11th month ...

This print is a northeast view of Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church, located at Third and Pine Streets in Philadelphia. Well-dressed people, possibly members of the church, are seen walking on the sidewalks along the walls of the churchyard. The illustration is by William L. Breton, a watercolorist and early lithographer of Philadelphia scenes who was active in the city between about 1825 and 1855. Born in England circa 1773, Breton immigrated to Philadelphia about 1824. In the late 1820s, he contributed illustrations to Annals of Philadelphia, compiled by the ...

This lithograph dating from circa 1829 shows the public baths, located at the corner of George and Seventh Streets, near Chestnut Street, in Philadelphia. The illustration is by William L. Breton, a watercolorist and early lithographer of Philadelphia scenes who was active in the city between about 1825 and 1855. Born in England circa 1773, Breton immigrated to Philadelphia around 1824. In the late 1820s, he contributed illustrations to Annals of Philadelphia, compiled by the antiquarian John F. Watson. In 1829 Breton entered the lithographic trade to execute the illustrations ...

This print shows the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Mary, located on Fourth Street between Locust and Spruce Streets in Philadelphia. Men, women, and a small girl dressed in their Sunday finery are shown walking on the sidewalk in front of the church. George Washington and John Adams were among the important figures of the Continental Congress who sometimes attended services at Saint Mary’s, which was built in 1763 and renovated in 1810. The illustration is by William L. Breton, a watercolorist and early lithographer of Philadelphia scenes who ...

This print is a view of the front facade of the First Congregational Unitarian Church, located on the 900 block of Locust Street in Philadelphia. The church was built in 1828 after the designs of Philadelphia architect William Strickland (1788–1854), who was one of the first architects of the Greek Revival style in the United States, as well as a civil engineer and artist. Also shown are pedestrian traffic and a partial view of neighboring buildings obscured by trees. The columns supporting the portico of the church were salvaged ...

This print, published by Louis A. Godey in the first volume of his Lady’s Book (one of the earliest successful women’s magazines in America), is a pastoral view with mill and factory buildings along Frankford Creek in Comlyville, near Philadelphia. It includes the mill, converted to a calico print works by Smith & Brother in 1827, the loom factory of "Mr. S. Steel," and the dye works of "Mr. Horrick," i.e., Jeremiah Horrocks. In the foreground, two horse-drawn wagons and a man travel on Asylum Road. Horses and ...

This circa 1830 print by Edward Williams Clay (1799–1857) caricatures the pretentiousness and prejudice of early 19th-century Philadelphia Quakers toward people they regarded as their social inferiors, but it also mocks those seeking to imitate the Quaker elite. On a Philadelphia road in front of a small house with an open picket fence and a visitor arriving on horseback, a raggedly dressed, dark-skinned traveler with buck teeth, possibly an Irishman or African American, asks a rotund Quaker man and his daughter, "I say, this isn't the road to ...

This landscape print shows a couple walking along the bank of the Schuylkill River near the industrial village of Manayunk. A large tree stands in the foreground and small factories and dwellings are visible in the background. Also shown are groves of trees, rocks, and ground cover. Located along the east bank of the river, northwest of Philadelphia, Manayunk played an important part in the early industrial development of the United States. It was the site of large textile mills, which were built to take advantage of Manayunk’s plentiful ...

This lithograph of 1831 depicts the terminal of the Citizens Line of steamboats, located at the end of Arch Street on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. The steamboat is lying low in the river, and passengers are seen coming and going on Arch Street. The company office is in the left foreground. The print was published in James Mease and Thomas Porter's Picture of Philadelphia from 1811 to 1831: Giving an Account of its Origin, Increase and Improvements in Arts, Sciences, Manufactures, Commerce and Revenue (Philadelphia, 1831). The illustration ...

This lithograph shows the American Classical and Military Academy in the Mount Airy section of Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, located some eight miles (13 kilometers) from the center of Philadelphia. The right wing was built in 1750 as “Mount Airy,” the country seat of Pennsylvania Chief Justice William Allen, and early in the 19th century the area took the building’s name. Founded as Mount Airy Seminary (later Mount Airy College or Collegiate Institute) in 1807, the school served as a military academy in 1826–35 under the superintendence of Augustus ...

This lithograph shows a morphed view of the gothic Bank of Philadelphia building erected in 1808 to designs by Benjamin Henry Latrobe at the southwest corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets. The original drawing is by William G. Mason, whose perspective of the bank makes it look almost like a cathedral. The print is by John Jessie Barker (active circa 1815−60) and is the only known example of his work. A gate, lawn, and trees surround the building and a turreted outbuilding is visible on the property. Couples and ...

This lithograph of 1832 shows the depot of the Philadelphia, Germantown, and Norristown Rail Road Company, located at the junction of Green and Ninth Streets, Philadelphia. In the foreground is a locomotive, which is seen pulling passenger cars. The Philadelphia, Germantown, and Norristown Rail Road Company was incorporated on February 17, 1831, under a charter enacted by the Pennsylvania legislature. Rails were laid between Philadelphia and Germantown and the line was opened on June 6, 1832. The first trains were drawn by horses and covered the six miles (9.66 ...

The event shown in this lithograph is the civic procession held in Philadelphia on February 22, 1832, in honor of the centennial anniversary of George Washington's birth. Onlookers cheer the participants in front of the Second Bank on Chestnut Street, between 4th and 5th Streets. City officials and other prominent people of Philadelphia lead the parade, followed by tradesmen, volunteer fire companies, and the military. The top-hatted artisans (the artificers of the title, who struck special commemorative medals for the event) are led by a mounted parade marshal, their ...

This lithograph is a partial view of the Fairmount Waterworks, on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, one of America’s earliest municipal water-treatment systems. Powered consecutively by steam engines, waterwheels, and pumps that lifted water to reservoirs on a hill (Faire Mount), the waterworks and its beautiful setting were a tourist attraction from the beginning. They are seen here from the forebay, the reservoir from which the water was drawn to run the equipment. The plant was designed by Frederick Graff, and the result was an innovative engineering success and ...

This hand-colored lithograph shows a view looking past farmland to the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania. In the foreground, two boys sit in a fenced pasture in which cows graze near sheds and an enclosed pond with ducks swimming on it. In the background, a farm is visible in front of the prison at which a carriage is parked and a man rides on horseback. The penitentiary was built in 1823–36 after the designs of John Haviland and opened in an unfinished state in 1829. Located at 2101–99 Fairmount ...

This lithographic print shows the Old Court House in Market Street, Philadelphia, built in 1707−10 by carpenter Samuel Powell after the justices complained of having to hold court in an ale-house. The lower level was originally a watch-house, and the courtroom was on the second story. Official proclamations were read from the balcony, which was also where newly appointed governors of Pennsylvania made their inaugural addresses and elections for the county and city of Philadelphia were held before the State House was built. A cupola on the roof held ...

This lithographic print shows the Old Court House in Market Street, Philadelphia, constructed in 1707−10 after the justices complained of having to hold court in an ale-house. In its first four decades, the building fulfilled a number of municipal functions, including those of watch-house, courtroom, and site of official proclamations, inaugural addresses by newly elected governors of Pennsylvania, and elections for the county and city of Philadelphia. A cupola on the roof held the town bell. The print is by William L. Breton (circa 1773−1855), a British-born watercolorist ...

This print is an exterior view of the abolitionist meeting place and adjacent buildings at Sixth and Haines Streets in Philadelphia. Several pedestrians stroll the sidewalks. A carriage and horse-drawn cart pass by on the street. The hall, erected in 1838 as an arena for "free discussion," was set aflame by hostile mobs on May 17, 1838, after three days of dedication ceremonies and services involving both free blacks and white abolitionists. The ruins of the building continued to stand until the Odd Fellows Society built a hall on the ...

This lithograph of the Fairmount Waterworks, on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, shows one of America’s earliest municipal water-treatment systems. Powered consecutively by steam engines, waterwheels, and pumps that lifted water to reservoirs on a hill (Faire Mount), the waterworks and its beautiful setting were a tourist attraction from the beginning. The plant was designed by Frederick Graff, and the result was an innovative engineering success and beautiful buildings reflecting the contemporary fashion for Greek Revival architecture. This print is by John Caspar Wild (circa 1804-46) a Swiss-born artist ...

This lithograph print shows the second building of the United States Mint, which needed more space for its rising production than was afforded by its first structure. The new Mint opened in 1833 and was designed by William Strickland (1788–1854) in the early Greek Revival style. It is a simple building with two stories and a basement. Its wide flight of stairs, portico, and Ionic columns appear both dignified and inviting. The print is by John Caspar Wild (circa 1804−46) a Swiss-born artist and lithographer, who arrived in ...

This lithograph shows the United States Bank, also called the Second Bank of the United States (because it was the second federally authorized national bank), on the 400 block of the south side of Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. Its functions included regulation of the currency and handling fiscal transactions for the U.S. government. The bank was constructed in 1818−24 to designs by Philadelphia architect William Strickland (1787–1854) and was one of the first Greek Revival buildings in the country, apparently modeled on the Parthenon in Athens. The building ...

In the 1830s, a group of influential Philadelphians wanted to establish a rural cemetery that would be naturalistic, serene, and in genteel seclusion. They settled on Laurel Hill at 3822 Ridge Avenue, the former estate of merchant Joseph Sims, which had rocky bluffs and spectacular views and was about six kilometers from the city center. The cemetery, built in 1836–39 after the designs of Scottish-born architect and landscape designer John Notman, is seen in this bird's-eye view of part of the grounds. This view shows horse-drawn carriages and ...

William H. Rease, born in Pennsylvania circa 1818, was the most prolific lithographer of advertising prints in Philadelphia during the 1840s and 1850s. Shown here is his advertisement for the Conrad & Roberts Hardware & Cutlery store on the 200 block of North Third Street. It shows the storefront adorned with signage. The store interior is visible through the two open entrances. A clerk retrieves merchandise from a shelf for a patron and another serves a gentleman at a counter. Laborers move barrels and boxes from the open cellar. Above the cellar ...

William H. Rease, born in Pennsylvania circa 1818, was the most prolific lithographer of advertising prints in Philadelphia during the 1840s and 1850s. His advertisement here shows the Tobias storefront adorned with signage on the 100 block of North Third Street. A patron enters one of the two open entryways at which a straw basket and wine cask are displayed across from a large cask-shaped sign, which reads "S. Tobias No. 68 Importer & Dealer in Wines Liquors Cordials and Syrups." At the other entryway, a laborer rolls a cask out ...

William H. Rease, born in Pennsylvania circa 1818, was the most prolific lithographer of advertising prints in Philadelphia during the 1840s and 1850s. This advertisement shows the storefront of Wetherill & Brother (John Price and Dr. William Wetherill) on Front Street above Market Street. Signs advertise the "Drug, Paint & Glass Store," proclaim the proprietors "Druggist & Color Men," and depict the store emblem of an American eagle with a shield atop a barrel, surrounded by apothecary packages and bordered by the text "Encourage your own Manufactory" and "65 Old Stand." Stacks of ...

William H. Rease, born in Pennsylvania circa 1818, was the most prolific lithographer of advertising prints in Philadelphia during the 1840s and 1850s. This advertisement shows the Gilbert stove factory covered in signage in German and English on the 400 block of North Second Street. Patrons enter the storefront and a clerk, or possibly the proprietor, greets a patron at a second entrance. Stoves line the walls and are displayed at the entrances and in the shop windows. The appliances, of various styles, including a cooking stove with a tea ...

William H. Rease, born in Pennsylvania circa 1818, was the most prolific lithographer of advertising prints in Philadelphia during the 1840s and 1850s. Shown here is his advertisement for the Lockwood & Smith business at 7 South Fourth Street between Market and Chestnut Streets. A clerk greets a male patron at one of the open entryways. Shelves of plates, bowls, and pitchers line the walls of the store. In the display windows, more china, glass, and queensware (cream-colored earthenware), including tureens and pitchers, are on view. On the sidewalk, clerks handle ...

William H. Rease, born in Pennsylvania circa 1818, was the most prolific lithographer of advertising prints in Philadelphia during the 1840s and 1850s. Shown here is his advertisement for the adjacent businesses of wholesale druggists Charles Moyer and A. Fullerton Hazard (successors of Alexander Fullerton), and wholesale and retail hatter, Elijah Bowen. Both buildings are covered in signage. The "Alexander Fullerton drugs medicine & paints" signs on number 174 indicate the recent shift in ownership. A man stands in the left doorway of 174 directing a laborer who moves goods on ...

William H. Rease, born in Pennsylvania circa 1818, was the most prolific lithographer of advertising prints in Philadelphia during the 1840s and 1850s. This advertisement shows the office building and storefront for the undertaker and "Coffin Ware-House" at 93 Coates Street (later 225−27 Fairmount Avenue). A male patron enters the doorway of the office "N. Helverson Undertaker." A sign advertising "Coffins Ready Made" adorns the showcase window. A doormat covers the small step preceding the entrance and the cellar doors to the building are open. In the right, a ...